ALAMEDA — Alameda native Amy Ahlers, 31, returns home this weekend to offer a life-coaching workshop she and partner Melissa McFarlane promise will make 2005 a breakthrough year.

Ahlers, a Bishop O’Dowd graduate and a certified professional life coach since 2003, came to her current coaching position after several years in Los Angeles working as a teacher, advertising sales executive and actress.

McFarlane — the daughter of former U.S. National Security Adviser Robert “Bud” McFarlane — was her life coach.

In 2002, the two formed Electric Kites, an L.A.-based life-coaching company with a team of 25 coaches, and offer their ReCharge workshops in such cities as San Francisco, London and Zurich throughout the year.

McFarlane, 40, promises people will leave the full-day workshop with a clearly defined action plan to improve four to six areas of their lives, including career, relationships and finances.

“Life coaches challenge people to face their futures with a passionate, curious, decisive outlook that works,” she said.

The ReCharge workshop is Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Casitas Clubhouse, 1101 Verdemar Drive. Cost is $150. Deadline to register is Friday. To register, call Electric Kites at (323) 276-1864 or register online at www.electrickites.com.

More in News

Around 8:20 p.m., a 50-year-old Oakland man was driving on eastbound I-580 lanes near Edwards Avenue when a bullet came through his windshield from an unknown direction, CHP Officer Matthew Hamer said.

Around 5:35 p.m., CHP officers responded to a report of the incident in westbound I-580 lanes at Main Street. En route, officers learned a vehicle's driver said a person in another vehicle brandished a handgun and fired a shot.

In addition to evacuating 10 neighboring homes, deputies restricted pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the area while the sheriff's office bomb squad "safely disposed" of the explosives, officials said.